Mender
by charliedee
Summary: The war has ended yet Sasuke still feels incomplete, so he takes to the lands to mull over what he's done and the relationships he's put at risk. Drabble series about Sasuke's travels and his valiant efforts to try and piece things back together with the ones he loves. SasuSaku. Manga Spoilers.


He wanted everything in her life to be perfect, but first, he'd have to make sure he was perfect enough for her.

He wanted to come back to her a better man. He wanted to come back to the village a better man - he felt like he was living in this war torn shell, not complete, battered, lacking wisdom, the wisdom everyone else had it seemed. He spent far too long in the darkness and passed by things without giving them a second thought, and even though many things were long gone by now there were still a few things he could hopefully come to terms with. Konoha was no place for him to sit and dwell and try to attempt to atone to his sins, because everywhere he looked in this village he was met with sin or foul memories that he hoped to vanquish.

He told Naruto about what he planned on doing. Although the blond nodded in agreement and back him up one hundred percent, he whined about being best-friendless for the period of time. When the whining had ceased, Naruto stated that he would vouch for the Uchiha if Kakashi had a problem with the idea.

He knew telling Naruto was going to be the easy part because he had a strong understanding of Sasuke's point of view. There was one person aside from Kakashi that Sasuke had yet to tell, and he knew she would not be as easily won over. A week ago Naruto had made a passing comment about how much happier Sakura had been since the war had ended and they were all back together, and at the time Sasuke felt good knowing that she was happy. But now knowing that he was going to have to tell her he was once again not going to be present in the village tugged at his heartstrings - and that alone made him want to stay.

Sakura's schedule was filled with middle aged patients concerned about trivial things - and when she had a break it was taken up by the hospital's interns inquiring about something about their patients, and when Sakura finally got to go home after her long hours she'd stay up and read through her vast collection of medical texts to make sure she was always ahead of the game. Sasuke or Naruto barely got to see their old team mate anymore, and the last time that happened was a week and a half ago when she got the day off from Tsunade. Sasuke did the only thing he could do to get some alone time with her - book an appointment with her.

It was booked the day before he was set to see Kakashi and leave the village, so he prayed that they could resolve any issues within the day. He silently paced down the barren hallway of the hospital, and stopping in front of the door to her office. **Dr. Haruno, Sakura** was written in the glass in large bold letters, staring at him. He was thankful for the beige curtain on the other side of the glass that kept him concealed from her, it gave him time to man up before entered.

He wrapped his hand around the brass doorknob and clicked it open, a pang of guilt now hitting him, she really didn't know what was coming. Another pang of guilt when he locked eyes with her, her large green eyes immediately lighting up.

"Sasuke!" She seemed baffled by his presence as she frantically pushed papers around her desk in an attempt to find her appointment book, and when she found it she flipped through the pages hurriedly. "I - Oh! You're my next appointment."

He gave a slight nod as he closed the door behind him then silently taking a few more steps into the office, refusing a seat in front of her desk.

"So what's up? You here for more rehabilitation with your hand?" Privately Sakura had been helping Sasuke deal with having only one hand, and neither of them told anyone about it, because of Sasuke's 'pride.' He shook his head in response. "Oh? What is it then?"

He took a small moment to finally reply. "I have something to tell you Sakura." She raised a brow but allowed him to continue. "I'm going to be taking a break from the village." Well, he was never good with words, especially sentimental ones, and even though it didn't sound like it, he meant for it to not sound rude, or mean, or anything he was known for.

"W-what?" She leaned forward a tad in her black rolling chair, as if she hadn't heard him correctly. "What do you mean, are you _leaving_?" She looked panicked and shocked all in one, and another pang of guilt hit him. She failed to hide the pain and fear in her voice, but then he thought maybe she was great at hiding her feelings and he was just accustomed to this side of her.

She took his silence as a confirmation. She drew in a shaky breath and leaned back in her hospital chair, brows twitching as she was lost in a distant reverie. Both didn't speak, and the silence was broken as a few knocks sounded from the closed door. Sasuke pulled the door open to reveal an elderly woman, looking rather curious.

"Ah, is this Dr. Haruno's office? I have an appointment set for this time." Sasuke hadn't realized that much time passed, but with this woman in mind he opened the door fully to allow the woman entrance, and when she hobbled in, he was gone.

The next day Sasuke stepped inside Kakashi's office. Outside the door Naruto waited just in case his offered vouching was needed. Kakashi stood to face Sasuke, and they stared at each other for a moment. Sasuke failed to realize that behind him Sakura stood, watching the two men with a sad glimmer in her eyes and her finger toying with the hem of her skirt.

"Kakashi." Sasuke started, giving him a curt nod. "I'm here to request furlough."

"Ah, I know."

Sasuke raised brow, and with his singular eye, Kakashi shot Sakura a look over Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke slightly turned and once again met eyes with Sakura, her eyes lost the light now, and for another time, guilt played at his heartstrings. He didn't like being the one to cause her so much grief. Sasuke idly wondered what she had said to him.

"Sasuke, I am granting you your furlough." Kakashi stated coolly, watching his old pupil with a small amount of content in his eye. "I'll be honest with you, under normal circumstances you'd be imprisoned for life, but the only reason you've been pardoned is because of your assistance in undoing the mugen-tsukuyomi jutsu. Try not to forget, however; that all this is thanks to Naruto. I mean, he is the hero of this war and well... I did put in a few comments as the 6th Hokage."

Sasuke listened intently.

"So take it easy and don't go crazy on me again... It'll be my head they take this time."

"Yeah... Sorry." He didn't quite remember the last time he had apologized to someone. Maybe Karin, but that wasn't of any significant importance. He glanced back at Sakura as he heard her shift her footing. She looked quite alarmed, and this puzzled him.

"...You're leaving already?" Ah, that's right. He never got to tell her when he was planning on leaving. It was just by chance he ran into her here, in this office, right before he was planning on leaving for an unknown amount of time. "Tsunade's just about to complete your prosthetic hand from Hashirama's cells..."

He gave her a small nod in her direction. "I... I need to see it for myself. How the world works." He knew that no matter what he said to her it wouldn't make up for the fact that once again, team 7 would be incomplete. "All those thing's I've overlooked." Her feelings for him. "I have a feeling I'd be able to see them better now.. And if I miss this chance.. I don't think another will come. Plus, there's a few things that have been bothering me."

She looked down at her feet, eyes glossy, face unsure. He was dying to know what she had to say. "Wh-at.. If I told you.. That.. I'd like.. To come too?"

He waited until they locked eyes again to reply. He didn't want to speak to the top of her head. "It's my road to redemption. You have nothing to do with my sins."

"Nothing to do.. You say.." Her head dropping down again. He wanted to tell her that she had to do with a lot of his sins, but what he meant was that he would never put her through leaving the village, leaving her friends and her family, and her job to go on some quest with him.

She looked back up for a brief moment, only to have been poked on the forehead. "_I'll see you soon_." She looked startled, and she didn't understand what this gesture meant - but to him it meant the world. She didn't need to know what it meant, it would be his little secret until the time came when he could tell her. But that was only an if - an if meaning if she waited for him to build himself back up again. "Thank you."

..

It had been four months since the war had ended, two months since he left, and two months he'd been missing her. When he was younger he used to love being by himself to mull things over, and for the first month and a half he quite enjoyed the silence. He never knew how much having people around him meant, he was craving camaraderie like never before. So today was the day.

He bought stationary and when he found himself an empty field he sat down and pulled out his utensils. He wasn't ready to come back home, far from it, so the least he could do was write them a letter. He wondered if they were worried about him. He didn't want to address it to anyone specific, and when he thought about it he knew nobody's address. So he supposed he'd send it to the Hokage's manse.

Sasuke realized he didn't know how to write a letter. He flipped the pen around in his fingers as he contemplated what to write. He asked how everyone was back at home, and stated he was surprisingly homesick. He lost his train of thought, so he wrote that if they wanted to write back to him he'd be going North, so they could send any letters to the closest village and he'd check the post office.

He felt a little embarrassed actually. He wasn't one for writing things too openly like this, but he felt like hearing something back from someone would give him more motivation to keep trekking on.

He sealed the letter and brought it to the nearest post office an hour later.

..

Five days later after heading north he stumbled upon a gathering of small houses and store. He inspected the place carefully and saw the red letter in the glass window panel of a small shop, it said post office.

He sucked up his pride and hoped for the best, opening the door into the small place and carefully easing through the aisles to the front desk. The old man behind the desk propped his glasses up on his nose with a friendly smile on his face. "Hello there, what can I do for you?"

"My name's Sasuke Uchiha, I wanted to see if I had any mail."

"Ah, yes! We don't get much here, so I'd remember." The man hopped off his bar stool and wobbled off into the back room, leaving Sasuke to sigh a sigh of pure relief. He would have felt stupid if he hadn't gotten a reply.

The man returned with two letters in his hands. "Here you go."

He carefully took them and gave the man a curt nod before exiting the shop. He held the enclosed letters close to his person and he left off to find a secluded area to sit down and read the letters. There was a small opening in the forest beside the two, and he found it suitable, so he took a seat on a large flat rock underneath a ray of sunshine.

The two letters were from both Naruto and Sakura. The way they closed the envelopes Sasuke found funny. Naruto had sealed his completely with a lick - which Sasuke knew he'd struggle opening, but Sakura's had the small flap tucked into the envelope so he could just ease it out. He started with Naruto's letter, huffing and puffing as he ripped apart the envelope to reveal a bent, torn up piece of lined paper. He smoothed it out on the rock and squinted as the chicken scratch all over the place.

"Does he expect me to read this?" Sasuke muttered, holding the sheet of paper up to the sun to try and get those letters to pop out but nothing worked. The only thing he could read out was Naruto's name which took up almost the entire page. Still, Sasuke supposed it was the thought that counts. Next he slid the flap out of the envelope and revealed to himself a finely printed letter on a blank sheet of paper.

She started the letter off by saying it was good to hear from him, and that she'd been wondering if he was planning on keeping contact. She told him how Kakashi had just approved some sort of new project a ways away, a large building higher than any building in the village, since the war had ended a lot of displaced people had chosen to take to Konoha, and the demands were high for new apartments. She claimed there wasn't a lot of news going on about the village right now that he'd be interested in, but she'd talk about it anyways because she didn't want her letter to seem short. She talked about how Kurenai's child was the talk of the town, Shikamaru and Temari had spent more time together, as have Ino and Sai (surprisingly, apparently). Then she said there wasn't much else that was somewhat noteworthy, so she ended it by saying she hoped to get a letter from him again, and to reply to Naruto.

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he placed the letter back into the envelope carefully, contemplating what his next course of action was. He didn't particularly want to write back right away so that could give them some time to tell him something new with each letter. He slid the envelopes into his purple messenger bag and stood up, looking off into a random direction he wanted to take.

..

It was another month before he pulled out his stationary and took to his black ink pen. He was at a loss for words, so he kept it almost the same as the first letter, but he made two separate ones, one for Naruto, where he stated he couldn't read shit in his first letter, and one to Sakura. He tucked the flap into the envelopes and handed them to the next post office he came across.

This time it was a week before he got a reply. He read through Naruto's letter with a smirk, as it was not his writing at all. It was feminine, but it wasn't like Sakura's at all, so he could only guess it was that Hyuga girl writing for him. He talked about the large foundations the construction workers had laid down for this supposed 'sky-scraper,' and how it was one of the most anticipated buildings in all the lands. He bragged about how Ichiraku had received their permit to expand a month and a half ago, so the small stand it once was could now accommodate a much larger group of people. He then droned on about the integration of people from different lands, making up a diverse community of people, and how the crime rate had dropped substantially, only petty crime that could be taken care of by the Konoha police or teams of genin. He stated that when Sasuke returned home he could be given the police division. Naruto said his goodbye's, but of course mentioned that Sasuke better come back soon.

Sakura's letter was short, because as she had stated, she was picking up a lot of overtime shifts at the hospital to ease her mind. She left it at that and said her goodbye to him.

He wondered why she had to ease her mind. He wondered if something else was going on at home with her, or if it were entirely his fault, like it usually was. Then he thought maybe writing her letters wasn't doing her any good, although it eased his own mind.

He shrugged it off and tucked the letters away.

..

Three months had passed. It'd been a sorrowful time period, as a good chunk of those months were spent in a downpour of ridiculous rain. His original black robe hadn't had a hood on it for an enormous time so he'd caught the cold more times than he could count. When he came across the Hidden village of rain (maybe that's the reason for all of the rain) he purchased a black cloak with a hood. When he had exited the rain country, he found himself in the rain country in the midst of spring.

He was never one for scenic views - but that was his old self, who wouldn't pay attention to the finer things in life. The grass was the ripest shade of emerald green he'd ever seen, and the vast meadows were speckled with a plethora of different colored flowers. He had passed through many meadows of grass and flowers, but he stopped in his tracks when he spotted a different scenery.

It was a large clearance that opened up to a vast field. It wasn't the field that amazed him. In the field was a dense thicket of cherry blossom trees. It was a blur of pink everywhere, blowing in the gentle wind, covering the grass in petals, the sweet scent shrouding the air. It was like something out of a dream, he never knew a place like could exist.

He slowly walked into the dense mess of trees, looking around rather curiously, taking in his surroundings. It only brought one thing to mind and it was the obvious. It made him think of Sakura. It made him feel an immense amount of guilt that he hadn't replied to either her or Naruto in the past three months. So he slowly took a seat in between all of the trees and opened his messenger bag. Most of his papers were slightly wrinkled from when the pouring rain had soaked through everything. He checked his letters - the writing was still partially intact, the ink had been slightly smeared but other than that, they were fine. He sighed a sigh of relief and set them back inside his pack.

He sat there in silence, flipping his pen around his fingers as he looked around aimlessly. He felt like he was truly at a loss for words. Then he thought maybe he didn't have to think too hard about it and he should just write what came to his mind. Even if what he wrote didn't make sense, he knew she could make it out. First off, he apologized for not writing sooner. He said the weather was horrible as he passed through the rain country, so he hadn't had the heart to bring out his pen and paper and think of anything while in such a state. He told her he was now in the grass country, and since it was spring time everything was in bloom. He said he'd be honest and wouldn't have written this if it weren't for the mass of cherry blossom trees he found, and they made him feel at home again and they made him think of her as if she were right there with him. He told her he'd be staying around the region near Kusagakure for a little while if she felt like writing back, not that he expected that with her busy schedule.

He folded his letter carefully, and just as he did that a small pink petal fell in, not bothering to fish around for it as he sealed the letter. He set it into his pack and let out a sigh of relief. He supposed writing these letters gave him a healthy conduit for what he was feeling, unlike before, where he took his emotions out on other people.

He felt grateful. Upon writing this letter he felt eternally grateful. It was foreign to him but he could put his finger on it's name exactly. He was grateful to everybody that had accepted him back (although he got some mighty dirty scowls in the village from a lot of people) but Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi in particular. This is why he left the village. To clear his mind and to embrace the feelings he'd eventually come face to face with.

He wondered how long he'd be out here - because he still had a lot of emotions to handle.

..

Sasuke stood on the cliff overlooking Konoha. It'd been a little over two years since he had been here last. Since the war had ended. Since he made the hard decision to leave once again. He felt an insane amount of nostalgia, a fond look on his face as he looked at this village differently now. He still didn't feel like he had learned all there is to learn, or at least learn the amount his team mates had, but he still had his whole lifetime in front of him. He didn't want to leave like that again, for a period of two years, but he knew he had to take alone time more often. It was healthier that way.

He stealthily jumped off the edge of the cliff and landed gracefully on the earth beneath him. It was the evening, the sky was just turning orange on the horizon, and the streets were bustling with people trying to hurry home to their family. He knew Kakashi would still be in office, so he knew that's where he was to head first.

He walked silently through the halls in the manse with an odd sensation. While he traveled he didn't take to the hotels around the roads or villages. He preferred to stay outdoors, so being indoors was almost weird to him. He stopped in front of the large doors that separated him from his old Sensei and gently rapped his knuckles against the wood.

Kakashi's familiar voice sounded. "Come in."

Sasuke wrapped his hand around the knob and slowly opened the door. Kakashi lifted his head from his paperwork and they locked eyes. From the time Sasuke was under this mans wing, it was obvious to him when the man was smiling. Kakashi stood up as Sasuke entered the room.

"Sasuke." Kakashi greeted him coolly, looking almost in disbelief that Sasuke had returned. Sasuke didn't want that impression of him anymore.

"Kakashi." Sasuke greeted back with a slight smirk tugging at his lips. It was great to see a familiar face.

"I hadn't received a letter in almost a year. I feared something happened to you."

This was true. The only person he frequently wrote to was Sakura. It wasn't because he disliked writing Kakashi or Naruto, but when Sakura wrote it gave him some perspective, and he believed she was helping him heal even though she wasn't physically with him. "That doesn't mean I didn't appreciate your letters."

"Good to know. I suppose I should thank you for uh, not leaving again. Two years. What have they done for you?" He asked curiously, raising a brow in the Uchiha's direction, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets.

"I was able to deal with a lot of things that had been on my mind for a while. Though I still have a lot to work through, I already feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

Kakashi looked as if he had a weight lifted off his shoulder when Sasuke told him this. "That's good to hear, Sasuke. I don't know for how long you're planning on staying, but God knows how much Sakura and Naruto have been missing you over these two years. I don't get to see Sakura as much, but Naruto frequents my office more than I'd like, but when he does so he often expresses how much he wishes you were back... For real."

"Ah." He nodded slowly. "Where do you think Naruto would be around this time?"

"Where do you think?" Kakashi chuckled lightly. "It's dinner time, so most likely Ichiraku's."

"I'll go see him, then. You can count me as present in the logbooks."

Kakashi grinned beneath the mask and shot him a small nod. "Good."

..

Sasuke casually strode through the busy streetlight lit streets of the village, eyes wandering about as he skillfully weaved through the hordes of shoppers and workers. He took his time with his walk, as he knew Naruto was never in-and-out from Ichiraku's, and it was still the perfect time for Naruto's almost daily visits. He saw the brightly lit shop opening closing in quick, and when Sasuke moved the flaps to peek inside, he saw that it had indeed been renovated, opening up into a much larger space with a few extra workers running about.

He adjusted his cloak as the heat from the restaurant invaded him, undoing a few buttons in his neck region before scouting the area. He never thought the smell of ramen would comfort him like it did - and the color orange, belonging to a certain ninja comforted him even more. The left half of the restaurant was a booth and table area, then the right half was a eat in bar style, where Naruto was happily perched upon a stool, chatting it up with the cook beyond the half wall.

He smirked. At least he knew that side of Naruto was never going to change. He dismissed the hostess and silently closed in on the blonde ninja, and without him even noticing, took a seat right beside him at the bar.

It took Naruto a few seconds to realize somebody had taken the empty seat beside him, and about half a minute to realize just who had taken it. "SASUKE...?!" His jaw dropped and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, a second away from choking on the noodles he had slurped up a few seconds beforehand. "IT REALLY IS YOU!" His shocked face turned into a pleasantly surprised one, happily slapping his hand down on Sasuke's shoulder. "It's been two years! When I let you go I never thought it'd be for that long!"

"Even I didn't know how long I'd be gone for."

"Yeah, that's true..." His features visibly softened as his thoughts drifted off somewhere else. "You have no idea how happy Sakura will be to see you.. If you're here to stay for a while, that is."

He gave a simple nod. "I will be."

..

The sky was dark, but Naruto had informed him Sakura stayed at the hospital till the wee hours of the morning, so his hope wasn't lost. He felt like he was replaying the same situation over and over again in his head - returning to her with a guilt ridden conscience. He almost didn't want to return to her so she could just live a somewhat normal life. But that would be absurd of him, because the first time he left she couldn't live a normal life. So it was up to him to return to her.

He remembered her exact window on the third story, west side of the building, overlooking the expanse barren lands beyond the village. He approached the village and jumped up carefully, just silently enough that he didn't attract any attention from her as she was consulting with a patient. He sat carefully outside the window, watching her, completely shrouded in darkness.

She smiled at the patient and shared a chuckle with the woman straightening a pile of papers on the top of her desk as she spoke. She often spoke about how stressful her job could be and it was evident through the state of her office, papers askew on her desk, cabinet shelves open, multiple junk food wrappers and takeout boxes stuffed into the small bin behind her desk. She had small bags hanging underneath her eyes, making her looked overworked and sad. It made him wonder if Tsunade was still in charge, because no sane person would allow Sakura to work ridiculous hours like this.

She gently smiled as the woman slowly stood up from her seat in front of the desk, both saying their goodbye's to each other just before she had left the office, leaving Sakura to let out a weary sigh, thinking she was alone. She placed her elbows atop her desk and slowly rubbed at her temples, murmuring things to herself, things he couldn't quite understand.

He had to get in quick before another patient came by. He placed his fingers on the edge of the slightly ajar window and slowly slid it open. It made a slight hissing noise as it rode along the metal track but she was so engulfed with herself she failed to notice it. However, when he placed his feet against the the hardwood floor beneath him she jumped right to her feet, more startled than ever.

They locked eyes for only a brief moment, until Sakura vigorously wiped at her eyes in confusion and pure shock, mouth hanging open. "S-Sasuke?!" She stuttered, still trying to make it out of he was a delusion or not - maybe this was a normal occurrence with her?

"I'm back home, Sakura." She seemed dumbfounded that she had actually heard his voice, and that was some sort of reality check for her - it really was him.

She tried to find the words to form a sentence but they all hitched in her throat. "You never talked about coming home, I wasn't expecting you!"

He shrugged coolly. "I didn't know I was coming home until I just.. Ended up back here." It was true. He hadn't planned on it, but he saw the village in the distance and that skyscraper the two had fussed over for some time. He knew he was drawn back home and it had to have been for a reason. He knew why now.

"Have you.. Worked out what you wanted to work out?" In their letters he rarely spoke about how far he had come.

"No.. I've learned a lot, but not nearly as much as I need to."

She slightly nodded. "So.. How long do you plan on staying here then?" Any shred of hope seemed to escape her, and the slight glimmer of light in her eyes was lost. She was almost reluctant to ask because she feared the answer.

"Leaving isn't in my plans for the near future." He told her, and he was happy to tell her this, finally, he could deliver some sort of good news to her. Her head snapped up, face immediately illuminating, a long held grimace finally able to surface as she let out a small whimper of relief.

Immediately she rushed forward and engulfed him in a tremendous, famous Sakura strength hug, burying her face deep into the dark wool. He was _slightly _caught off guard, purely for the fact that she was still slightly behind her desk, and it was in the blink of an eye that she had sprang forward and got a hold of him. He was anticipating that this was going to happen - and for the first time it felt real and natural, and he actually _reciprocated_ the feeling. She'd often hug him in their team seven days and every time he would nudge her off and blatantly disregard her existence. This would be the first time, the _very first time_ he ever held her back with some sort of appreciation and care in his heart.

Though he lacked his left arm to properly wrap his arms around her much smaller frame, he did what he could with his one arm, tightly holding her close to his body. Human touch was something he hadn't properly had in his lifetime after the massacre, so the feeling was something new - and he actually quite enjoyed the feeling of someone not wanting to let go.

A few minutes later she wiped her face with the white sleeve of her white lab coat, sniffling before shaking it off and looking at him expectantly. "Do you need medical attention of any kind?" He thought that maybe that was her new kind of coping mechanism, averting right back to her medical know-how, or maybe it wasn't that, maybe that was just her nurturing and helpful nature budding through, wanting to make sure people around her were alright.

He gently shook his head. "I'm fine."

"What about your arm?" The corners of her lips turned down, most likely the image of him and Naruto dying side by side drifted in her mind again. In one of her letters she'd stated it worried her that he refused to take Tsunade's prosthetic arm, but he thought he managed to avert those feelings as he told her he was getting used to doing basic things with just one arm. It seemed that was fruitless. "Lady Tsunade still has it if you want it."

In all honesty he didn't know what he wanted. Most of the time he'd be so frustrated with having only one hand that he'd just completely quit whatever it was that he was doing... But then again, it was a reminder of what had happened and could keep him going with his inner journey. "I don't know what I want to do with it yet."

She smiled so sweetly. "Alright." She took a small step back, engulfed in emotion. She wasn't crying or anything of the sort, but that smile on her face spoke all the words he needed to hear from her. She looked as if she just wanted to saying everything and anything that was on her mind, because talking about anything with him would just be so fantastic, but she was failing to come up with anything. "Um.." She began, still frantically trying to find a subject to speak about. "Did you... see the new skyscraper?"

"Sakura." He interjected, almost finding it funny how _that_ was what she had brought up. She looked up almost startled that he was going to be starting the conversation this time, almost looking relieved, as her brain was currently a jumble. What he was going to say he wanted to say it _first_. Not because of wanting to be first like in a competition, but because he knew it would mean more if he brought it up, so it would shock her, and let her know that it was nothing but the truth, and he wasn't just 'saying it back' to her. "I love you."

Just saying those words themselves felt like a weight lifting off his shoulders. He could barely recall the last time he said those words. Maybe when he'd leave for school early in the mornings, calling it out to his mother as he rushed out the door, not wanting to make Itachi late. That would have been almost eleven years ago. Eleven years since he could say he wholeheartedly loved somebody.

Sakura's face didn't change for at least ten seconds - as it took her that long to actually comprehend what it was he had said. She was completely caught off guard, face blanched except for the small, almost unnoticeable blush that crept on her face. She held her hand close to her heart and the corners of her lips slowly tugged upwards, her shimmering green eyes slowly looking up to meet with his own eyes. "Sasuke.." She whispered almost inaudibly, again at a complete loss for words. "..That means the world to hear that."

He supposed if an outsider looked at this they would say that it was long overdue. Perhaps it was. But he knew that if those words escaped his mouth anytime before this moment right now it wouldn't have carried as much weight as it did - and it wouldn't have been truthful to the word 'love.' He'd only say love if he actually felt love.

"I think you already know how I feel by now, Sasuke.." She smiled sheepishly, letting out a small chuckle, color returning to her face, the smile evolving into a much bigger one now. "I love you as well."

* * *

><p><em>just a small drabble series to try and help my loss of Naruto ;w; also I'm leaving out The Last right now, as I have not seen it, same with a ton of other people. since this is sasusaku centric it probably wouldn't matter anways.<em>

_review if liked? it would lead me to continue drabbling on and on! tell me what you liked/didn't like, would like to see, etc! _

_disclaimer:I don't own Naruto_


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